Women's World Championship Semi-Finals

The first games of the Women’s World Championship semifinals were played in Khanty-Mansiysk

Antoaneta Stefanova from Bulgaria took the lead against the Indian Harika Dronavalli, winning the first game of the match with White pieces.

The former World Champion got a promising position after the opening. After lengthy maneuvering White made a break on the kingside and won a pawn. Black still had drawing chances and could equalize with accurate defending, but Harika impatiently went for a sharp counterattack. She sacrificed another pawn and then a piece, but miscalculated and did not get sufficient compensation for her losses. Stefanova combined defensive moves with threats to the black king and finished the game with a nice tactical blow that inevitably led to a checkmate.

Antoaneta Stefanova (right) defeated Harika Dronavalli in their first match game

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Anna Ushenina (Ukraine) trapped her opponent Ju Wenjun (China) in the opening to obtain an overwhelming advantage. The Chinese did not defend perfectly, and her position soon became critical. However, the Ukrainian wrongly rejected the opponent’s exchange sacrifice, and Black managed to come back. A draw was agreed on the 28th move.

Anna Ushenina (left) and Ju Wenjun drew their game

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Results:

Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) – Harika Dronavalli (India) 1-0

Anna Ushenina (Ukraine) – Ju Wenjun (China) draw

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The remaining schedule is below. Games start at 15:00 local time (09:00 UTC).

Date

Day

Event

24.11.2012

Saturday

Semi-finals - game 2

25.11.2012

Sunday

Tiebreaks

26.11.2012

Monday

Free Day

27.11.2012

Tuesday

Final - Game1

28.11.2012

Wednesday

Final - Game2

29.11.2012

Thursday

Final - Game3

30.11.2012

Friday

Final - Game4

01.12.2012

Saturday

Tiebreaks

02.12.2012

Sunday

Closing Ceremony

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The 2012 championship runs from 11 November - 2 December, with each round consisting of 2-game matches (4 in the final) between the players drawn against one another. Tied matches are decided by rapid and blitz tie-break deciders.

Yes. still mad for Anna's missed opportunity too. And she made it rather quickly. I wonder what went through her mind. Was she overprotective and was afraid of some counterplay on a1-h8? Or as Ju said she probably wanted to win the game right here and needed the bishop for that? Anyway first time she shows some indeciveness (or overoptimism) here, she indeed played flawless so far. Probably the big stage, career-changing opportunity affected her, hopefully only temporarily and not fatal. But she could have been in the final now, instead a tiebreak is coming vs a player who won all her matches in TB

First, as far as I can tell, mistake by Anna Ushenina in classical games in this tournament, when she had enough time to make what seemed like an obvious (and correct, it turns out) decision to take the exchange.

All her play so far has been nearly flawless or, if mistakes were present, it was because she was already very low on time.

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